Chelsea are always thinking a step ahead of their opponents, according to Jose Mourinho. The Chelsea manager claims he already knows how to foil rivals' plans before they have thought of them.

"You predict what people can do to try and stop you," said Mourinho. "For example, when I heard people speaking about 'stop [Claude] Makelele, stop Chelsea', we had thought that before them. We started working on that before."

Their attitude to eliminating potential weakness can be seen in the ruthless counter-attacking that they have recently demonstrated. Chelsea looked far less effective on the break early in the season. "We created a lot of situations but the last pass, the last movement, the eye communication between the man with the ball and the man in the movement was not very, very good," he said of the early days. "We worked a lot on that. Now every time we go to counter-attack we always find the right man, the right choice of pass."

Mourinho, though, refuses to call himself a perfectionist. "A perfectionist is somebody with an obsession and he will never achieve it. You cannot be perfect. That isn't the word. Somebody who wants to improve all the time? Yes."

It is part of Mourinho's grand plan for a lasting legacy. "Chelsea is not me," he said. "When I leave Chelsea I want to leave a very good situation behind and I think what I want is what Roman [Abramovich] wants and what Peter Kenyon wants. It's the reason why we came here."

Mourinho is "scared" Everton will rediscover last season's form tomorrow but against Bolton and Real Betis, Chelsea struck nine goals in little over 100 minutes. The manager thinks belief is the key. "John Terry knows he is the best central defender in England and maybe he also knows now he is the best in Europe," he said. "I think Lamps [Frank Lampard] knows now he is the best player in Europe." He cited Paulo Ferreira, who missed the last three games, as an example of players accepting they cannot play every week. Carlo Cudicini's attitude means talks have started on a new contract.

Mourinho feels people cannot pressurise him now. "I arrived here as European champion. You still doubted me," he complained. "The worst thing you can have in your life, especially in football, are the question marks and I had them."